Despite a lagging national economy, a new study found East Lansing improved financially last year.
Milken Institute’s ranking of top U.S. cities, which judges metropolitan areas based on economic performance, placed the Lansing-East Lansing metro area as 120th in the nation in 2012, up 30 spots from 2011.
The study, titled Best-Performing Cities 2012, uses job growth, wage growth and technological development to determine the economic prosperity of each city. The Milken Institute analyzed data from 2006 to late 2012 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to create the ranking index.
Armen Bedroussian, senior economist for the Milken Institute, said much of the growth in 2012 came from a resurgence in manufacturing after the Great Recession, especially in the Midwest.
“Vehicle manufacturing increased (in Michigan) this year,” Bedroussian said. “This will continue to support the Lansing economy.”
Technology was a main driver for growth across the nation as well. The city of East Lansing runs the Technology Innovation Center, a growth accelerator program for new technology startups in the community. In the past four years, the Center has helped 50 companies set up operations, said Jeff Smith, director of the New Economy Division of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, or LEAP.
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“These companies currently employ 100 individuals in the region,” he said. Even when the companies are not successful, “they help (employees) gain experience to go on to similar positions in the market.”
Smith said there was a major increase in MSU support of new tech startups in the area.
“In the past year, more support has come from the university to create new ideas, which are now becoming new companies,” he said. “(This has been) a strong, strong shift in the last year.”
Bedroussian said university cities often get a boost in the technology sector.
“A lot of metros that have a large university presence benefit,” he said. “(These) research anchors serve as an advantage for the metro.”
Recently, MSU launched a university-owned company, Spartan Innovations, to identify and develop technologies to support startup companies.
“(We) work with the intellectual property developed on campus (to identify) those best served by making a startup around them, rather than (use) the traditional licensing path,” Spartan Innovations Director Ruben Derderian said.
Since its inception last October, Spartan Innovations already has identified 22 potential technologies to develop, and four startups already have been created. Derderian said this process involves generating either a prototype or a proof of concept, then establishing a workable business plan.
Keeping these startups local is important to Spartan Innovations as well.
“One of our goals is to keep the companies in Michigan, if not in the Lansing area,” Derderian said.
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